Moscow, Russia: Moscow Community Garden Helps Students GetGrowing

Moscow Community Garden helps students get growing
http://www.argonaut.uidaho.edu/content/view/1556/47/
Written by Liz Virtue -Argonaut
Tuesday, 04 April 2006
Campus living spaces and apartments are great places to live, but there is
never room for everything you might want, like a garden. This is why the
Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute introduced the idea of the Moscow
Community Garden, a place where students can go to grow anything they want if
they don't have the space at home.
PCEI is a program created to increase environmental awareness in Idaho and
eastern Washington. The Moscow Community Garden is one way PCEI is reaching
out to local community members and students.
"The best marketing group for this project is going to be students," said
Courtney Rush, nursery garden technician. "Students are the ones who don't
have room for gardens of their own."
Charlie Olsen/Argonaut The Moscow Community Garden on West C Street is
starting to show some green for the season. Community Garden Work Day will be
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The community garden is located on West C Street, near Tri-State and Emmanuel
Lutheran Church, only a short distance away from campus.
"It's such a beautiful place," Rush said. "When you're there, you feel like
you're not even on campus anymore. It's a great spot to go to just get away."
The garden offers accessible garden plots to people who don't have space at
their homes or for those who don't know how to garden and are interested in
learning, said Aly Bean, PCEI volunteer coordinator. Bean is in charge of
recruiting volunteers for PCEI, as well as orienting them and getting them to
come back and volunteer in the future.
"We have informational workshops for students to learn how to grow tomatoes
and we have workshops for them to learn about compost," Bean said. "We are
hoping to get students to learn about organic gardening."
The community garden is 100 percent organic, meaning no herbicides or
pesticides are used on any of the plants in any of the 32 garden plots.
PCEI is a nonprofit organization, so the money needed to keep the garden
running comes from charging a small fee to those who decide to lease a garden
plot. The plots are available in two different sizes. A 20-by-20-foot plot
sells for $45 a season and a 10-by-10-foot plot is $30. This also includes a
$50 refundable deposit returned to gardeners after they clear their plots at
the end of the season. A regular season runs from March through Nov. 1, and
the food people grow in the garden is theirs to keep, Rush said.
"It's really a great price for what you get," Rush said. "You probably spend
more than $30 on groceries every couple of weeks. You can cut down these costs
if you're growing some of your own food."
Once a plot is leased, the renter is responsible for planting and maintaining
the crops planted. Plot owners are also required to volunteer in the garden
for 10 hours over the course of the season.
Gardeners are welcome to plant anything they wish in their plots, including
flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables.
"We have everything, including pumpkins and sunflowers," Bean said. "It's also
very common to see green beans, squash, onions and potatoes."
PCEI prides itself on making volunteer work fun, especially when it is
benefiting the environment, Bean said. The community garden is well-equipped
with everything needed to grow a successful garden, including advice,
workshops and tools.
"People don't need to bring their own tools to the garden, which makes it a
lot easier for them," Rush said. "We have it all in our shed so people don't
have to worry about it."
The Moscow Community Garden is a great place to go to find a little nature in
the midst of a college town, Rush said. She said it's a great place to go to
get away from college life and get back to the basics.
"It's really cool to be a part of something where you plant something, nurture
it and watch it grow," Rush said.
PULL QUOTE (if needed) "It's really cool to be a part of something where you
plant something, nurture it and watch it grow." Courtney Rush, nursery garden
technician
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